Democratic
Party Sites
Democratic
Massachusetts State Committee: http://www.massdems.org/
Democratic
National Committee: http://www.democrats.org
Young Democrats
of America: http://www.yda.org/yda/
Newton Democratic
City Committee: http://www.newtondems.org/
Sites
maintained by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
Citizen Information Service: http://www.state.ma.us/sec/cis
This
site has a lot of useful information, including maps of the Congressional
districts.
Official
Election results from the Secretary of State: http://www.state.ma.us/sec/ele/eleidx.htm
Office of
Campaign and Political Finance: http://www.state.ma.us/ocpf/
Office of
Campaign and Political Finance Clean
Elections Seminars schedule
Sites
with Legislator's Voting Records
This is a
national site that provides information on the records and positions of
Congressmen, Senator, legislators, and other candidates across the country.
http://www.vote-smart.org
The easiest
way to find someone is to type in their last name and do a search. For
Massachusetts legislators, detailed voting information is not there, but
the most interesting information is found by clicking on "Special
Interest Groups" Here you will find how various groups rated the
legislator, including links to each group's web site (if they have one).
Unfortunately,
some groups provide numeric ratings but do not post the detailed voting
information used to determine that rating (these groups include CPPAX,
Mass. ACLU - national ACLU provides detail on Congressmen and Senators,
Mass. AFL/CIO, Mass. Teachers Association, and Mass. Now - you can probably
get information by emailing or writing these groups; their addresses are
linked to in the Vote-Smart "Special Interest Groups" pages).
The abortion
rights groups simply label each candidate as "pro choice" or
"anti choice" with no information on how that conclusion is
reached.
MassINC has
a site 02133.org
(named after the zip code for the Massachusetts State House) describes
itself as a FREE online tool that gives citizens basic background information
on Massachusetts politics and policy news stories.
Sites
with Detailed Legislator's Records
These sites,
run by progressive groups, contain detailed records of how legislators
voted on issues important to the site:
Massachusetts
Audubon Society: http://www.massaudubon.org
Select "News and Action", then "Legislative Report Card."
The detailed information is in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat File)
MassPirg:
http://www.pirg.org/masspirg/.
Click on "Legislative Scorecards" (about half way down the page).
Other
Massachusetts Sites
EqualMarriage.org
fights the anti-gay initiative.
Criminal
Justice Policy Coalition - This Massachusetts organization
seeks a more enlightened approach to problems of crime and violence.
Alternate
News Sites
With the
increasing domination of our media by corporate interests, it is important
that we explore other means to supplement the often one-sided news coverage
they provide. These sites present an alternate point of view.
Salon.com
- An excellent news magazine, updated daily. Tends to be liberal, but
also presents other points of view. Often includes stories that do not
make it into mainstream media. I would encourage anyone to sign up for
their ($30 a year or so) "Premium" service, but most of salon.com
is freely available to all.
BuzzFlash
- a news site that bills itself as the "anti-Drudge Report."
Quite open in their bias (e.g., "The Pope meets the Dope"),
but often quite interesting.
Media
Whores Online - another very opinionated news site.
Other
Sites
Federal Election
Commission: http://www.fec.gov/index.html
Moveon.org
- this organization was started as a response to the partisan Republican
attempt to impeach Bill Clinton, and has become one of the most active
and effective in opposing the Bush policies, especially the unilateralist
approach to foreign policy that threatens to undermine the rule of law.
Democrats.com
- claims to be "the largest independent community of Democratic activists
- the aggressive progressives!" When you go there, they try to get
you to sign up for their newsletter (which I personally enjoy - Michael
Bate. But you can click "Stop" to stop the popup about the newsletter).
Alliance
for Democracy - supports clean elections, one person one vote,
etc. Also, somewhat more controversially, seeks to abolish Electoral College
(liberal Democrats have strong disagreements about that).
Democratic
Talk Radio - This site looks good, but I have not had a chance
to check it out in detail. |